Facebook deceived users about the way it used phone numbers, facial recognition, FTC to allege in complaint
Facebook deceived users about the way it used phone numbers,
facial recognition, FTC to allege in complaint
By Tony
Romm
The Federal Trade Commission plans to allege
that Facebook misled users’ about its handling of their phone numbers as part
of a wide-ranging complaint that accompanies a settlement ending the
government’s privacy probe, according to two people familiar with the matter.
In the complaint, which has not yet been
released, federal regulators take issue with Facebook’s earlier implementation
of a security feature called two-factor authentication. It allows users to
request one-time password, sent by text message, each time they log onto the
social-networking site.
But some advertisers managed to target Facebook
users who uploaded those contact details, perhaps without the full knowledge of
those who provided them, the two sources said. The misuse of the phone numbers
was first identified in media reports and by academics this year.
The
FTC also plans to allege that Facebook had provided insufficient information to
users — roughly 30 million — about their ability to turn off a tool that would
identify and offer tag suggestions for photos, the sources added. The sources
spoke on the condition of anonymity. The facial recognition issue appears to
have first been publicized earlier this year by Consumer
Reports.
The FTC declined comment. Facebook also declined
to comment.
The
two privacy violations are included in a complaint tied to a settlement brokered
between the FTC and Facebook, which multiple sources said they expect to be
announced Wednesday. The agreement requires Facebook to submit to unprecedented
federal oversight of its business practices, as The Post first
reported in May, including the creation of a special committee on
its board of directors that regularly certifies the tech giant is handling user
data appropriately.
But the inclusion of those two privacy issues in
the complaint highlights a critical question facing the commission: How to
handle a litany of privacy scandals that came to light during the course of the
FTC’s 16-month investigation into Facebook, and whether the FTC will penalize
the tech giant for those additional violations or give it a clean slate going forward.
As part of the settlement, Facebook won’t be
required to admit guilt, according to three people familiar with the matter.
The FTC often allows companies to avoid admitting any wrongdoing as part of its
agreements ending investigations, choosing instead to focus its legal firepower
on securing substantial changes to an offending company’s business practices.
But the move could embolden critics who feel the agency was not aggressive
enough in its negotiations with Facebook.
“There’s a growing perception that the
perceived effectiveness of what the agency’s doing depends on [its] ability to
extract this kind of acknowledgment of fault,” said William Kovacic, a former
FTC commissioner who’s now a professor at the George Washington University Law
School
Google
avoided a statement of guilt when it was penalized by the FTC in 2012 for its
privacy violations as part of an agreement with the agency that saw the tech
giant pay a $22.5 million fine. On Monday, Equifax also
did not admit guilt to the FTC even as it committed to the agency to improve
its cybersecurity practices. The credit-reporting agency drew the FTC’s
attention after it suffered a massive security breach in 2017 that put 147
million Americans’ personal data in jeopardy.
Adding to some critics’ potential
objections: The FTC did not question Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg,
two people familiar with the probe said Tuesday.
The
settlement is weaker
than the tough penalties — including a fine into the tens of
billions of dollars — that some at the FTC initially hoped to obtain from
Facebook, sources told the Post over the course of a six-month investigation.
Those issues prompted the FTC’s two Democrats to vote against the settlement in
July.
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